C2C dos

The tour started on dirt, but I am sorry I didn't get a lot of pictures of that. Click on the link at the bottom of this blog for the "official photos" of the trip. These are just the ones that I took when I remembered to take pictures.

We saw a lot of cows. They were everywhere. I think there may be more cows in Nicaragua than in Iowa. Okay, maybe not, but its got to be close.

One of the first experiences we had was taking the barge across this little river. The barge is pulled back and forth by cables. It only took about 10 minutes to get across and our barge was packed to the gills with cars, busses and bikes.
You may recognize the background in this picture from the previous post. Pictured below is Aimee, Carey and Allie. It was Aimee's birthday on the first day of biking and so we 'pimped' her ride for the day. Notice the purple and pink streamers and pink bike horn. She LOVED it (not really, but she was a good sport about it).

This is a typical check point. We had 3 support vehicles. The ambulance was equiped with food and water and would drive ahead of the bikers and set up check points every 20km. The bikers would arrive and sit and relax and recharge. The Hilux pick up would play sweeper and drive back and forth the length of the bikers as they were riding. It was equiped with some food and gatorade, but mostly it was there for emergency repairs and injuries. The 3rd vehicle was the box truck and it held all our luggage and extra food and water. It was originally supposed to go on a head and take care of laundary at the hotels but it wasn't fast enough on the roads to beat the bikers. It litterally crawled on the roads, at least, until we hit pavement.

Dimas, one of the Nicaraguan driving the box truck, thought we should wash the vehicles in the river. So we did. We had two brooms and our hands. It worked pretty well.

Speaking of washing.......these are the feet of Aimee and Carey. And yes, they are white people. Between the sun and the dust, they got some interesting lines on their feet.

This photo was taken on the last day, but this is a pretty typical pulperia. It sold water, fruit juice and soda. Our bikers were taking it easy on the last day and so everyone decided to stop and refresh themselves. The last day ended up being the hottest day of the whole tirp, and so they probably earned it.

The dirt roads were tough because of the pot holes, rocks and the amount of flat tires we had. When we hit pavement we ran into some more challenges - other cars. The truck in the right of the picture had 3 trailers full of dried sugar cane. I was rather glad I was on the side of the road and not on a bike when it passed.
For the most part we didn't have any problems with traffic. Our most worrisome day was the morning of the last day when we drove through Managua, but we left the hotel at 5am and missed most of the morning rush - thank the Lord.

The faithful support crew: Dave, Kevin, April and me. I got to know Kevin and April really well and I still like them! We had some good times and good laughs along the way.

I love this picture. We said "Dave - look injured." Kevin and April are very kind and compassionate people........it looks like I could care less. I am just happy the trip is over :)

We had some awesome times. I have spent almost 4 years in Nicaragua and this will be one of the highlights of my time here. God was gracious and faithful, He answered prayer and brought us together. It was one of those experiences that is hard to put into words - you just had to be there.

Go to http://flickr.com/photos/voorberg/sets/72157612317010601/show to see the picture that April took through out the trip. She is an amazing photographer and you can see a lot more of the trip and the country through her lens.

Thanks for the prayers and support! I love you all!